Troll of Tower Bridge #CreatorOwnedDay

The Troll of Tower Bridge.

"Ever wanted your own troll? The Troll Workshop provides businesses with customised, enhanced Troll Bodyguards (TM) to any group or organisation. A one-time fee buys the best guard dog on the market, under your complete control. And the best thing about Troll Bodyguards (TM); They're guaranteed for 10 years. How's that for a low turnover?"

When the illegal mad science factory, Troll Workshop, was found, shut down and destroyed by a UK government task force, all active Trolls were ordered to be destroyed. Fresh off the operating table, one Troll managed to escape, and with only fragmented memories of his human life, took up residence under Tower Bridge. Spoken of in whispered rumours, he has become known as "The Troll of Tower Bridge".

What will happen when the Troll Workshop financiers feel the need to tidy up loose ends, the organisation that bought him realise their product is still out there, or the government realise there's a Troll on the loose?

Well I don't know really, I only thought this up last night and drew it this morning  for Creator Owned Day. Lots of new characters and art on the Twitter hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay. Still time to join in.

I'd be amiss if I didn't mention you can pick up my creator owned graphic novels with writer Cy Dethan; Cancertown and Slaughterman's Creed direct from our publisher Markosia or digitally via Comixology or Graphic.ly.

Getting out of the house...

Quick update on some upcoming events:

Friday 24th Feb (that's tomorrow). I'll be co-presenting a comicbook creating workshop for ADF alongside my Absence collaborator Andy Luke. It is open to anyone, free of charge. All ages, levels of ability welcome. 11-3pm ADF Belfast; 109-113 Royal Av, Belfast, BT1 1AF.

The following day I'm off to the London Super Comic Convention. I'll be at selling books and custom sketches during the weekend. Keep an eye on the Markosia schedule as Cy Dethan and I will be signing copies of Slaughterman's Creed and Cancertown at their table at points during the weekend.

On the drawing front, Jennifer Wilde #2 is finished, Black Scorpion #1 is over half way and I'm starting a new project this week that I should be able to talk about soon.

The Outsider Games work I've been doing is coming along nicely, but that deserves a post of its own sometime soon.

I think I have my idea for Creator Owned Day. A concept stemming from on mistyped word. Don't all the best ideas come from errors..

Creator Owned Day - March 1st

Creator Owned Day is 1st March 2012.

The challenge:

Create a sketch of an original character or concept and and post it on your blog Thurday 1st March. It should be a concept completely owned by the artist (or co-owned with the writer/collaborators permission to post).

Why? A number of reasons: 

1. A lot of reader and creator focus is on characters owned by larger corporations. Let's bring a little spotlight on creating brand new, creator owned concepts.

2. Bringing a little awareness to the business side of co-creating original content. Take a look at Jeff Parker's article and follow up comments on the subject. Co-creators can take this opportunity as a little trial run, just make sure to have a mutual agreement in advance.

3. Fun! A few creators discussed the idea on Twitter and thought it was a great opportunity to create something entirely new, while bringing attention to these sketches.

The details:

1. Create an sketch of a new character/character you own. We're doing this primarily to get our imaginations running, so a concept specifically created for Creator Owned Day is probably ideal. It should NOT be a character owned by either a company eg. Marvel's Wolverine, OR owned by other creators e.g. Todd McFarlane's Spawn. It also shouldn't take distinct features from characters owned by others e.g. Wolverspawn You must own the character.

2. Post it on your blog, or Facebook, Twitter etc.

3. Share your post using the Twitter hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay.

3. Help us spread the word by retweeting your favourite new characters. 

 

Sound like fun? Let's do it!

Conception

I've been stretching my artistic limbs a little lately and doing a bit of concept work, illustration and game design (I'll blog more about that soon). Today was a bit of character design for a one of the comicbooks I'm working on. This character only plays a small part, but he features on the variant cover I had to make sure his costume was properly designed.

For this all-digital process I experimented with multiple players. When I ended up with something I liked, the figure was copy-merged and pasted to the right hand side, then used as a base to work on top of. My actual Photoshop file looked like the one below:

Click the pic for a better look.

An unusual format for me, but I quite liked the process.

Thought Bubble

At the minute I'm the bus stop at Leeds airport waiting for the bus to bring me to the Thought Bubble Festival. Graham Pearce, creator of the hilarious Sgt Mike Battle comic is sharing his table at the con with me over the weekend, so if you're about, call over to table 179 in Saville Hall and say hello.

I'll be selling copies of Jennifer Wilde #1, as well as Cancertown, Slaughterma's Creed, prints and custom sketches. This weekend will be one of the best times to buy comics off me as collaborators Cy Dethan, Nic Wilkinson, Vicky Stonedbridge and Maura McHugh will be about the con and can sign them for you, or I'm sure.wouldn't mind a chat about the books if you're not one for adding scribbles to your comics.

Treading Ground

New comic journalist website Cosmic Treadmill are presenting a spotlight week on Atomic Diner, and have a review of their latest comics including Jennifer Wilde, plus and a quick interview with myself, complete with an exclusive splash page art from Black Scorpion.

I've posted a breakdown of said splash page on my Tumblr this week as well. Click the preview above to bring you there.

Jennifer Wilde has been getting rave reviews everywhere, so check in with http://jenniferwildecomic.com/ if you want to hear the feedback. 

I'm working away on both Jennifer Wilde #2 & Black Scorpion, so expect more previews soon.

Jennifer Wilde #1 Where, When and Why

Jennifer has been cast into the Wilde. My copies of Jennifer Wilde #1 have arrived and they are very nice indeed, a really nice paper and print job.

If you want to get your hands on one, there's a blog post up on JenniferWildeComic.com letting you know all the places you can buy Jennifer Wilde #1, including direct from Atomic Diner and Forbidden Planet Belfast. It's also got nice review quotes from John Freeman and Hilary Lawyer as well as some process shots as I worked out how to draw a 1920s steam train.

I'll also be personally bringing a few copies over to Thought Bubble, leeds in Novomber to sell. If you want to  pre-order one from me, just let me know and I'll hold one for you. 

Back to the drawing board for more Jennifer Wilde layouts...